Little is known about the importance of personality traits for subjective well-being (SWB) and job satisfaction among self-employed. The aim of this article is to investigate if the Big-Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience) have different relationships with SWB and job satisfaction among self-employed compared with regular employees. Data come from a Swedish survey comprising representative samples of self-employed (n = 2483) and regular employees (n = 2642). Personality traits are measured using a 10-item personality measure. Our findings show that there are only small differences, between self-employed and regular employees, in the associations between personality traits and SWB. For job satisfaction, on the other hand, we find much stronger relationships for self-employed than the regularly employed. For self-employed, every personality trait except ‘openness to experience’ have a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction. In comparison, only ‘extraversion’ and ‘emotional stability’ are significantly correlated to job satisfaction among regular employees. The relationship between ‘extraversion’ and job satisfaction was furthermore substantially weaker among regular employees. Therefore, being self-employed seems to be particularly beneficial for individuals scoring high on ‘extraversion,’ ‘agreeableness,’ and ‘conscientiousness.’

Background: Little is known about the possible long-term health consequences of youth unemployment. Research indicates that unemployment may lead to socioeconomic downward mobility and mental health problems, but we still lack knowledge of the long-term health consequences of youth unemployment. This article examines the potential long-term association between youth unemployment and functional somatic symptoms in adulthood.

Methods: The ‘Northern Swedish cohort’ was used with data from five data collections, from 1981 (age 16) until 2007 (age 42). Youth unemployment was measured as months in unemployment between age 16 and 21, and health outcome as functional somatic symptoms (an index of 10 items of self-reported symptoms). Linear regression was used to analyse the relationship between months in youth unemployment and functional somatic symptoms at age 21 and age 42, stratified for women and men and adjusted for potential confounders, such as time spent in education at age 21 and later unemployment between age 21 and 42.

Results: Youth unemployment was significantly related to functional somatic symptoms at age 21 for men after controlling for confounders, but not for women. Among men, the association remained for functional somatic symptoms at age 42, after controlling for confounders.

Conclusions: Adolescence seems to be a sensitive period during which unemployment could have remaining health effects in adulthood, at least for men, though assumptions of causality are tentative and more research is needed.

Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Family Medicine.

Strandh, Mattias

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. Centre for Applied Psychological Research, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Australia .

Background: Previous research has found a positive association between health-behaviour and health. Only a few longitudinalstudies have been performed, and as far as we found, none have followed a cohort for 27 years. Methods: This study used acohort study, the “Northern Swedish Cohort”, which consisted of all graduates, n = 1080, from a compulsory school in aSwedish town. Data were collected with a comprehensive questionnaire; response rate 96.4%. Health-behaviour was analysedwith binary logistic regression, with health-behaviour at age 21, 30 and 43 years as dependent variable. Besides baselinehealth-behaviour, gender, somatic and psychological health and socioeconomic background, the analyses were adjustedfor work situation and social network. Results: The main findings were that education reduces the probability of unhealthybehaviour over the life course, which held after controlling for early life health-behaviour and possible confounders. Thegeneral education effect on health-behaviour was stronger among men than among women. Conclusions: Higher educationreduces the probability of unhealthy behavior. Thus, investments in higher education should be an important public goal.

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. Centre for Applied Psychological Research, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy at University of South Australia, Australia.

There is extensive research pointing to the positive effects of education in the form of labour market outcomes. These outcomes are vital when evaluating education; there are however additional outcomes of education that might also be important for quality of life. From this point of view, education could affect non-market areas such as democracy, gender equality and civic engagement. This article investigates the effects of level of education and field of study on two vital non-market capabilities: agency and voice. The study uses an eight-year longitudinal national survey of 1058 Swedish youth, controlling for baseline values of voice and agency. The empirical analysis shows that university education increases young people’s capabilities of voice and agency. Field of study was also found to have a relationship with agency, where social science and business education was found to be connected with the highest probability of agency, whereas there were only small effects of field of education on voice.

Background: Education profoundly affects adult socioeconomic status, so it is important to ensure that all children have the capability and opportunity to achieve educational goals.Aims: The study aimed to examine the relationship between mental-health during adolescence and upper secondary school completion and grades, which has received comparatively little research attention to date.Method: Longitudinal administrative and registered data were used to analyse the relationship between school achievement and prescriptions of psycholeptic and psycho-analeptic drugs. The sample consisted of all children born in Sweden in 1990 (n=109223), who were followed from birth to age 20. Logistic and OLS regressions were performed separately for boys and girls, controlling for birth health and family characteristics.Results: A negative relationship between mental-health problems and educational outcomes was found; this result was almost independent of the controls. Only minor differences between the sexes were detected.Conclusions: Poor mental-health during childhood correlated negatively with educational attainment. Given the strong link between educational success and adult life, more resources are needed to support children with mental-health problems.

Aim: The aim was to analyse the association between economic stress during youth and adulthood, and poor mental health through life course models of (1) accumulation of risk and (2) sensitive period. Methods: The study was based on the Northern Sweden Cohort, a 26-year prospective cohort (N = 1010 in 2007; 94% of those participating in 1981 still alive) ranging from adolescence to middle age. Economic stress was measured at age 16, 21, 30 and 42 years. Two life course models of accumulation of risk and sensitive period were analysed using ordinal regression with internalized symptoms of mental health as outcome. Results: Exposure of economic stress at several life course periods was associated with higher odds of internalized mental health symptoms for both women and men, which supports the accumulated risk model. No support for a sensitive period was found for the whole sample. For men, however, adolescence appears to be a sensitive period during which the exposure to economic stress has negative mental health consequences later in life independently of economic stress at other ages. Conclusion: This study confirms that the duration of economic stress between adolescence and middle age is important for mental health. In addition, the results give some indication of a sensitive period of exposure to economic stress during adolescence for men, although more research is needed to confirm possible gender differences.

Aims: Research often fails to ascertain whether men and women are equally hit by the health consequences of unemployment. The aim of this study was to analyze whether men’s self-reported health and health behaviour were hit more by unemployment than women’s in a follow-up of the Northern Swedish Cohort.

Methods: A follow-up study of a cohort of all school leavers in a middle-sized industrial town in northern Sweden was performed from age 16 to age 42. Of those still alive of the original cohort, 94% (n = 1,006) participated during the whole period. A sample was made of participants in the labour force and living in Sweden (n = 916). Register data were used to assess the length of unemployment from age 40 to 42, while questionnaire data were used for the other variables.

Results: In multivariate logistic regression analyses significant relations between unemployment and mental health/smoking were found among both women and men, even after control for unemployment at the time of the investigation and indicators of health-related selection. Significant relations between unemployment and alcohol consumption were found among women, while few visits to a dentist was significant among men.

Conclusions: Men are not hit more by the health consequences of unemployment in a Swedish context, with a high participation rate of women in the labour market. The public health relevance is that the study indicates the need to take gendered contexts into account in public health research.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the relation between responsibility for domestic work and psychological distress was influenced by perception of gender inequality in the couple relationship and relative socioeconomic position.

Methods: In the Northern Swedish Cohort, all pupils who studied in the last year of compulsory school in a northern Swedish town in 1981 have been followed regularly until 2007. In this study, participants living with children were selected (n = 371 women, 352 men). The importance of relative socioeconomic position and perception of gender inequality in the couple relationship in combination with domestic work for psychological distress was examined through logistic regression analysis.

Results: Two combinations of variables including socioeconomic position ('having less than half of the responsibility for domestic work and partner higher socioeconomic position' and 'having more than half the responsibility for domestic work and equal socioeconomic position') were related to psychological distress. There were also higher ORs for psychological distress for the combinations of having 'less than half of the responsibility for domestic work and gender-unequal couple relationship' and 'more than half the responsibility for domestic work and gender-unequal couple relationship'. Having a lower socioeconomic position than the partner was associated with higher ORs for psychological distress among men.

Conclusions: This study showed that domestic work is a highly gendered activity as women tend to have a greater and men a smaller responsibility. Both these directions of inequality in domestic work, in combination with experiencing the couple relationship as gender-unequal, were associated with psychological distress There is a need for more research with a relational approach on inequalities in health in order to capture the power relations within couples in various settings.

Comparative studies of health inequalities have largely neglected age and ageing aspects, while ageing research has often paid little attention to questions of social inequalities. This article investigates cross-country differences in gradients in self-rated health and limiting long-standing illness (LLSI) in middle-aged and in older people (aged 50–64 and 65–80 years) linked to social class, and degrees to which the social health gradients are associated with minimum pension levels and expenditure on elderly care. For these purposes, data from the European Social Survey (2002–2010) are analysed using multilevel regression techniques. We find significant cross-level interaction effects between class and welfare policies: higher expenditure on elderly care and particularly more generous minimum pensions are associated with smaller health inequalities in the older age group (65–80 years). It is concluded that welfare policies moderate the association between social class and health, highlighting the importance of welfare state efforts for older persons, who are strongly reliant on the welfare state and welfare state arrangements such as pensions and care policies.

Self-employment is often discussed in terms of 'push' and 'pull' factors. The aim of this article is to assess not only the prevalence of 'necessity' self-employed and 'latent' entrepreneurs in Sweden, but also the characteristics in terms of socio-demography, personality traits, intrinsic work motivation and preference for independence associated with each group. In addition, the article investigates whether 'necessity' self-employment and 'latent' entrepreneurship are related to four measures of well-being. This is done using a nationally representative survey of the self-employed (small-business owners, n = 2,483) and regularly employed (n = 2,642) in Sweden. The main findings indicate that 'necessity' self-employed have characteristics and preferences that differ from other (non-'necessity') self-employed. They display relatively low intrinsic work motivation and preference for independence as well as scores on personality traits typically associated with entrepreneurship. They also report lower levels of work autonomy, job-satisfaction, life satisfaction and family-life satisfaction than other self-employed. 'Latent' entrepreneurs resemble entrepreneurs in many ways but they nevertheless report lower levels of well-being than non-'necessity' self-employed.

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work. Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. Centre for Research on Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden.

Previous research shows that the self-employed generally experience a higher degree of job satisfaction compared to regular employees. However, our knowledge of subjective well-being among the self-employed, the differences between various groups of self-employed and the potential influence of contextual factors is somewhat limited. The purpose of the present paper is to address this gap by taking macroeconomic conditions, gender and immigrant status into consideration. The results show that self-employment is positively related to subjective well-being, but there are also differences between groups of the self-employed; self-employed with employees report a higher level of life satisfaction than the self-employed without employees. Economic growth is more important for the level of life satisfaction among the self-employed than among employees. The analyses also point to different patterns for female and male self-employed without employees: only women experience a higher level of life satisfaction compared to employees. The results also show that the relationship is stronger among immigrants than natives. The results of this study confirm the importance of considering potential heterogeneity when examining subjective well-being among the self-employed.

Background: Coeliac disease might affect school performance due to its effect on cognitive performance and related health consequences that might increase school absenteeism. The aim of this study was to investigate whether children with coeliac disease performed differently on completion of ninth grade in school compared with children without coeliac disease.

Methods: Analysis was performed on a population of 445 669 children born in Sweden between 1991 and 1994 of whom 1767 were diagnosed with coeliac disease. School performance at ninth grade was the outcome and coeliac disease was the exposure. Other covariates included sex, Apgar score at 5 min, small for gestational age, year of birth, family type, parental education and income.

Results: There was no association between coeliac disease and school performance at ninth grade (adjusted coefficient -2.4, 95% CI 5.1 to 0.4). A weak association was established between late coeliac diagnosis and higher grades, but this disappeared after adjusting for parent socioeconomic conditions. Being small for gestational age affected performance negatively (adjusted coefficient -6.9, 95% CI 8.0 to 5.7). Grade scores were significantly lower in children living with a single parent (adjusted coefficient -20.6, 95% CI 20.9 to 20.2), compared with those with married/cohabiting parents. A positive association was found between scores at ninth grade and parental education and income.

Conclusion: Coeliac disease diagnosis during childhood is not associated with poor school performance at ninth grade.

Proposed theories to explain gender inequality in the labor market and family, such as gender specialization within families and gender segregation in the labor markets, lack consideration for individual preferences. Preference theory accounts for individual choice and gendered preferences but has been substantially criticized, indicating a need for further research. This study uses Swedish longitudinal data to explore how preferences for work and family relate to behavior. We explore three critical issues raised in previous research: gender differences in preferences; the relationship between work and family changes and subsequent preferences; how preferences relate to work and family behaviors. Our results showed small general gender differences in preferences, although women had a stronger preference for both children and work than men. Changes in work status were further related to changes in work preferences, while changes in family status were related to changes in family preferences. Moreover, preferences had poor predictive power in relation to work and family behaviors. Our results indicate that preferences do not explain gender inequality in Sweden. The relationship between preferences and behaviors seems bidirectional and preferences and behavior within the family sphere has little to do with preferences and behavior within the work sphere.

This article investigates the importance of the early educational and labor market career for nest leaving and for returning to the parental home. Using unique individual life course data for the entire Swedish cohort born in 1973, the article shows that employment means a high probability of nest leaving and stability of independent living. University studies mean a high probability of nest leaving but less stability of independent living. Those neither employed nor pursuing and education had both low probabilities of nest leaving and less stability of independent living. The early career was more important for structuring women's nest leaving than men's nest leaving.

At the same time as women made their large scale entrance on the labour market divorce rates increased in most western societies. This combination of societal trends was widely understood from the perspective of the specialization and trading model, which implies undermined marital stability through decreasing interdependency between husband and wife. We argue the need to acknowledge the new roles, and perceptions of these roles, men and women have in order to explain differences in separation and stability among couples. When both partners are expecting to be in paid labour and share housework responsibilities, specialisation could actually be a risk factor for cohabitational dissolution. This article uses a ten year longitudinal data base of all Swedish cohabiting first time parents in 1993. The analyses generally support what could be labelled a role balance model on separation rather than the specialization model. Looking at the father's participation in childcare this was quite clear, where the man's outtake of parental leave for the first child was shown to be related to reduced hazards of separation. In the same way equal distribution of the household labour market incomes between the partners was related to lower hazards of separation.

Classic research on unemployment and mental health has focused on the functions of employment. These functions are considered to be of equal importance for all unemployed. A critique of this perspective has been that it views the unemployed as passive and homogeneous. Instead, an agency approach has been suggested, which focuses on the individual goals of the unemployed. This paper develops and tests a model for understanding the differentiated mental consequences of unemployment, which on a theoretical level integrates both the structural restrictions of the unemployment situation and the agency of the individual. The model is based on previous findings which indicate that mental well-being is dependent on the economic need for employment, on the one hand, and on the psychosocial need for employment, on the other hand. The model integrates both these aspects and the results show that the combined effect is of central importance for the differentiated mental well-being of the unemployed. The analysis is based on a longitudinal survey of 3,500 randomly selected, unemployed Swedes.

Although the availability of social support and psychological attachment to work have been shown to influence mental well-being in unemployment, the main determinant suggested in research is economic strain. Yet, though the level of state support in unemployment is the most crucial determinant of economic strain, there has been little research on the impact of welfare benefit regime on mental well-being among the unemployed. In this paper we compare the impact of benefit regime by comparing the unemployed in Britain, Ireland and Sweden. We find that the type of benefit received is an important determinant of mental distress with income replacement benefits being more beneficial than flat rate benefits. Results also show that different systems differentially impact on different groups with income replacement benefits tending to maintain pre-unemployment differences in distress and flat rate benefits equalising these differences.

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. Centre for Applied Psychological Research, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.

Self-employed persons and their enterprises are regarded as important to the economy for their contribution to economic development. However, an understanding of the relationship between the psychosocial working conditions, the work-life balance and outcomes, such as health and wellbeing among the self-employed and micro-enterprise is limited. The main aim of this article is to study the relationships between control and demands at work, the work-life balance and wellbeing among self-employed men and women. Data were obtained from the European Social Survey (ESS) programme 2004, which is an interview survey conducted in 26 European countries (n15 789). Wellbeing is measured by the WHO-Five Wellbeing Index and work-life balance is measured by an index consisting of two questions on work-life balance/conflict. The results show that men and women who are self-employed experience a lower level of work-life balance than those employed and this result is found more in men than women. When job control and demands are held constant for the self-employed and the employed, self-employed women experience a significantly higher level of work-life balance than do employed women, but self-employed men experience a similar level of work-life balance as do employed men. Self-employed women have a slightly higher level of wellbeing than do employed women and the difference between the selfemployed and the employed men is non-significant. When controlling for the level of job control, the relationship between self-employment and wellbeing is non-significant among women and is significantly negative among men. The results of this study confirm that the psychosocial working conditions are important because demands and control in work influence work-life balance and wellbeing among self-employed men and women.

This article investigates the relationship between class origin, educational attainment, and the capabilities of agency and voice. The main objectives are to investigate how class origin and educational attainment interact and to consider whether higher education reduces any structural inequalities in the social aspects of life. A longitudinal approach is applied, using a national survey of 1058 Swedish young people, controlling for baseline values of agency and voice. The empirical analysis reveals an association between class origin and agency and voice. University education proves to be of central importance for the capabilities of agency and voice; however, this varied for young people with different class origin. Young people from manual working-class backgrounds benefit from higher education, while no significant result was found for young people with white-collar parents. The results indicate that higher education reduces structural differences in capabilities central for social participation.

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. Centre for Applied Psychological Research, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia , Adelaide , Australia.

In this study we examine the long-term impact of second chance education (SCE) on incomes of poorly educated individuals who live in Sweden but were not born in a Nordic country, using data on income changes from 1992 to 2003 compiled by Statistics Sweden. Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses show that participation in SCE increased the work income of non-Nordics by a higher percentage than that of Nordics. The results also indicate that much of the effects of SCE on non-Nordics are related to increases in “Sweden-specific” human capital, rather than increases in their educational level per se, which seems to provide a form of ‘endowment insurance’ that improves their labour market position in Sweden. Relying on the theoretical framework of the Capability Approach, we conclude that such effects are related to the instrumental economic value of individuals’ capability to be educated, as well as the value of material well-being.

This article investigates the relation between Second Chance increase in formal education among low educated adults in Sweden and long term wage development. Despite the awareness of the role of education for employability and individuals’ overall life chances surprisingly few studies have investigated the wage effects of Second Chance Education for adults. Research contributions referring to long term effects of such educational investment are particularly limited. In this study we use a longitudinal register database compiled by Statistics Sweden where we follow all low educated adults in Sweden from 1992 over a time span of twelve years. The results show both impressive direct and long term positive effects on wages after the adult attainment of a completed secondary education. In further analysis a large proportion of the long term effects are shown to relate to further educational attainment after the completion of Second Chance secondary education. The conclusion that is drawn is that Second Chance Education in Sweden is an effective tool for improving long-term labour market prospects and economic opportunities for low educated adults, this not least through its ability to start educational trajectories.

Economic incentives and their impact on the job search behaviour of the unemployed have been a central focus in the academic and political debate in Sweden. A key con­cept has been the reservation wages of the unemployed, the lowest income at which an unemployed person would be willing to accept a job offer. Unemployment benefit sys­tems have been argued to raise and maintain reservation wages at high levels that lo­wer job chances. This has been supported by a large number of international studies. From this perspective lower reservation wages would function as protection against long term unemployment and the scarring effects associated with it. High reservation wages might however, based on the same behavioural assumptions, have a human ca­pital preserving effect. The possibility to hold out for the right job should reduce hu­man capital losses compared to accepting the first available job offer. In this article we use Swedish longitudinal micro data combining interview and register data in or­der to investigate three central aspects reservation wages in a Swedish context: Factors influencing the setting of reservation wages, the effect of reservation wage on job chances and the impact of reservation wages on reemployment incomes. Our findings show that benefit level and pre-unemployment position in the wage structure are central factors for setting the reservation wage. The effects of reservation wages were however not the expected. No effects were found on job chances, while a strong positive effect was found on reemployment income. This together indicates that high reservation wages have a human capital preserving effect in Sweden.

29.

Nordlund, Madelene

et al.

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.

Strandh, Mattias

Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.

Economic incentives and their impact on the job search behaviour of the unemployed have been a central focus in the academic and political debate in Sweden. A key concept has been the reservation wages of the unemployed, the lowest income at which an unemployed person Would be willing to accept a job offer. Unemployment benefit systems have been argued to raise and maintain reservation wages at high levels that lower job chances. This has been Supported by a large number of international Studies. From this perspective lower reservation wages Would function as protection against long term unemployment and the scarring effects associated with it. High reservation wages might however, based on the same behavioural assumptions, have a human capital preserving effect. The possibility to hold Out for the right job Should reduce human capital losses compared to accepting the first available job offer. In this article we use Swedish longitudinal micro data combining interview and register data in order to investigate three central aspects reservation wages in a Swedish context: Factors influencing the setting of reservation wages, the effect of reservation wage on job chances and the impact of reservation wages on reemployment incomes. Our findings show that benefit level and pre-unemployment position in the wage structure are central factors for setting the reservation wage. The effects of reservation wages were however not the expected. No effects were found on job chances, while a strong positive effect was found on reemployment income. This together indicates that high reservation wages have a human capital preserving effect in Sweden.

In this study we address the relationship of self-reported reservation wages(RW)(the lowest offered income at which an unemployed persona will accept a job offer), the income replacement rate of unemployment benefit (IRUB) and psychosocial need for employment with job search intensity and reemployment probabilities among unemployed in Sweden in 1996-1997. The results indicate that the RWs reported by the group that we observe over timewere relatively stable, but strongly related to IRUB and both the gender and age of the unemployed individuals. Interestingly, IRUB was related to search intensity, but not reemployment probabilities, while the RW was related to reemployment probabilities but not search intensity. These findings suggest that IRUB might be a poor proxy for RWs, in some situations at least. In sharp contrast, psychosocial incentives appeared to be related to both search intensity and reemployment probabilities, indicating a need for a richerunderstanding of search behaviour and unemployment durations. The data also indicate that the rolesof search behaviour and incentives for reemployment probabilitiesmay be exaggeratedwhich, at least under the relatively depressed labour market conditions our data represented, appeared to be much more strongly related to human capital and demand for labourfor our study population

In this study we investigate the effects of active labour market policy measures on health and well-being and how these effects are connected with socioeconomic status. The data were collected among the participants (n = 212) in 24 conventional vocational training courses in Finland. According to the results, training was accompanied by improvements in health and well-being among participants with a higher socioeconomic status, whereas for blue-collar workers the changes were neutral or even detrimental. The results raise questions about the role of active labour market policy measures as a public service. There seems to be a risk that these types of measures maintain or even produce health differences between socioeconomic groups.

From being an unemployment success story, Sweden was during the 1990s thrown into a European normality, with apparent high and persistent unemployment. This has made unemployment a central issue in the Swedish public debate as a social problem directly affecting hundreds of thousands of individuals. In the public debate there is however no consensus on what characterises the experience of unemployment. One perspective emphasises the role of employment for self-realisation. Unemployment here becomes a very destructive experience, due to the psychosocial value attached to employment. An alternative perspective instead views employment as a necessary evil that brings little satisfaction to those who participate in it. From this perspective unemployment mean very little to those struck by it outside the possible negative effects on income (which are minimised by the welfare state).

The objective of this thesis has been to move beyond the postulated truths of what the experience of unemployment means. It uses an empirical approach in order to investigate the consequences of unemployment for mental well-being, and to develop an understanding of the reasons for this relationship.

The following conclusions can be drawn from the five articles that make up the thesis. In line with previous international and Swedish research, the thesis shows that unemployment as compared to employment is in general a distressing experience. This does however not mean that we can draw the simple conclusion that unemployment represents misery and employment represents the absence of misery. The thesis finds the relationship to be more complex than so. There is a need to take into account more of the possible variations in status available both on and outside the labour market. Different exit routes from unemployment were found to have different consequences for the mental well-being of the unemployed individual. Further, the evidence in the thesis shows that there is variation in the impact of unemployment on mental well-being within the unemployment group. We should, thus, not talk about the experience of unemployment, but rather about varying unemployment experiences.

The general effect of unemployment on mental well-being, and the variation in the unemployment experience, was in turn shown to be mainly dependent on two factors. Firstly on the psychosocial need for employment in a society where employment is the norm. Secondly, on the economic need for employment in a society where employment, as the thesis also shows, for many still is necessary for adequate economic resources.

Existing research suggests that gender differences in the effect of unemployment on mental health are related to the different positions and roles that are available for men and women in society and the family; roles that are connected with their different psychosocial and economic need for employment. The aim of this article is to analyse the role of gender in the relationship between unemployment and mental wellbeing in Sweden, representing a gender regime with a similar need for employment among women and men, and Ireland, representing a gender regime in which the need for employment differs between women and men. The results, based on longitudinal data from the two countries, show that unemployment was more negatively related to mental health among men than among women in Ireland, while men and women were equally affected by unemployment in Sweden. Factors related to the family and economic situation, as well as gendered selection into the unemployment population, explains the difference in mental health between unemployed men and women in Ireland. The overall conclusion is that the context has a major influence on the relationship between unemployment, gender and mental health.

Background: Recent findings suggest that the mental health costs of unemployment are related to both short- and long-term mental health scars. The main policy tools for dealing with young people at risk of labor market exclusion are Active Labor Market Policy programs for youths (youth programs). There has been little research on the potential effects of participation in youth programs on mental health and even less on whether participation in such programs alleviates the long-term mental health scarring caused by unemployment. This study compares exposure to open youth unemployment and exposure to youth program participation between ages 18 and 21 in relation to adult internalized mental health immediately after the end of the exposure period at age 21 and two decades later at age 43.

Methods: The study uses a five wave Swedish 27-year prospective cohort study consisting of all graduates from compulsory school in an industrial town in Sweden initiated in 1981. Of the original 1083 participants 94.3 % of those alive were still participating at the 27-year follow up. Exposure to open unemployment and youth programs were measured between ages 18–21. Mental health, indicated through an ordinal level three item composite index of internalized mental health symptoms (IMHS), was measured pre-exposure at age 16 and post exposure at ages 21 and 42.

Ordinal regressions of internalized mental health at ages 21 and 43 were performed using the Polytomous Universal Model (PLUM). Models were controlled for pre-exposure internalized mental health as well as other available confounders.

Results: Results show strong and significant relationships between exposure to open youth unemployment and IMHS at age 21 (OR = 2.48, CI = 1.57–3.60) as well as at age 43 (OR = 1.71, CI = 1.20–2.43). No such significant relationship is observed for exposure to youth programs at age 21 (OR = 0.95, CI = 0.72–1.26) or at age 43 (OR = 1.23, CI = 0.93–1.63).

Conclusions: A considered and consistent active labor market policy directed at youths could potentially reduce the short- and long-term mental health costs of youth unemployment.

There has been little research on the long-term relationship between unemployment experiences and mental health over the life course. This article investigates the relationship between youth unemployment as well as that of unemployment experiences during later periods and mental health at ages 16, 21, 30 and 42 years. Methods: The study makes use of the 'Northern Swedish Cohort' (NSC), a 27-year prospective cohort study. The cohort, investigated at ages 16, 18, 21, 30 and 42 years, consisted of all graduates from compulsory school in an industrial town in Sweden. Of the original 1083 participants, 94.3% of those still alive were still participating at the 27-year follow up. Mental health, measured through a three-item index of nervous symptoms, depressive symptoms and sleeping problems, was analysed using a repeated measures linear mixed models approach using ages 16, 21, 30 and 43 years. Unemployment exposure was measured as exposure to at least a 6-month spell during three periods; 18-21, 21-30 and 30-42 years. Results: Youth unemployment was shown to be significantly connected with poorer mental health at all three target ages, 21, 30 and 42 years. Later singular unemployment experiences did not appear to have the same long-term negative effects. There was however an accumulation in poorer mental health among respondents with unemployment experiences during two, and even more so three, of the periods. Conclusion: There are long-term mental health scarring effects of exposure to youth unemployment and multiple exposure to unemployment during the life course

The article explores whether people experiences a lower level of work–household conflict in a context that is characterized by extensive family policies (Sweden and to some extent Hungary and Czech Republic) aimed at facilitating participation in the labour market. This is done by studying perceived work–household conflict among women and men living in Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The analyses are based on the answers to a questionnaire distributed to nearly 6,000 randomly selected individuals within the framework of the European Union financed 'Household, Work, and Flexibility' (HWF) study. The results show that women in Sweden experience conflicts between work and household demands to a higher degree than any other category in all five countries. The differences between Swedish women and women living in the Netherlands and the UK are explained by variables indicating qualifications and workload in the main job, but the lower degree of work–household conflict among Czech and Hungarian women is still significant when controlling for household composition and working conditions. Data indicate that a possible explanation for this can be found in the interplay between men's and women's attitudes toward gender roles and the actual situation in terms of division of labour.

Previous studies have shown mixed results concerning the effects of participation in active labour market policy programmes (ALMPs) on the longer term scars in the form of poor income development and low job stability following the end of an unemployment spell. Most previous studies, however, have been limited both in the time frame used and to particular programmes. We argue that human capital investments are long-term investments and should therefore also be investigated from a long-term perspective. ALMP training and ALMPs as subsidized employment also represent different types of human capital investments that may produce effects that are differently distributed over time. In order to handle these issues, this article uses a longitudinal register-based dataset in which all long-term (more than six months) unemployed Swedes in 1993, who had no labour market problems in 1992, are followed for ten years. We found positive effects of ALMP participation concerning both the probability of reaching pre-unemployment incomes and a reduction in the hazard of exiting the labour market, while the effect on the probability of having an unemployment-free year was mixed. The effects of the two forms of ALMPs were differently distributed over time, with ALMP employment having an immediate effect that decreased relatively quickly and ALMP training having a longer-term effect.